


Origin Story

by Bloody_Destination



Series: Dark Ace Series of Connected Drabbles [1]
Category: Storm Hawks (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-07-09 10:08:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19885864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bloody_Destination/pseuds/Bloody_Destination
Summary: Ace leaves Cyclonia as a child.





	Origin Story

When Ace was a child, he understood very little of the world. He did not much care to understand anything past the way his mother, tall and beautiful, with her long blonde hair and her violet eyes, and their little home at the edge of the small village they lived in. Cyclonia was still peaceful, with the whispers of an approaching war still only rumors.

He did not understand why their little village was beginning to empty, why stores were closing, and neighbors were leaving their homes. He did not understand that less and less Atmosians were visiting and bringing their foreign toys and the colorful clothing that Cyclonia did not have the resources to make themselves.

All that mattered was the woman with her bright eyes and the songs she sung when he couldn’t sleep and the bandages she placed on scraped knees. He does not care to understand why it is that his father only ever comes to visit in the night, cloaked in a black hood and only ever once every few weeks. It does not matter, he would tell himself, when his father would pick him up and cradle him delicately in his arms and then the same with Ace’s mother.

He questions these things very little for the first six years of his life.

That is until, in the middle of the night, just days after Ace’s sixth birthday, his mother is rousing him violently from his bed. She has a bag slung over her shoulder and a panicked look in her eyes that have darkened so much, he isn’t even sure they are purple anymore.

His mother loves the colors of Atmos, especially the reds and greens that make her hair stand out all the more. He has never seen her in anything that even closely resembles the dark, rough texture that is so commonly associated with Cyclonian garb. This is the first time, and he hopes it to be the last. She pulls the same type of clothing Ace from the pack she has, clothing he’s never seen before but fits him perfectly and then pulls hoods over both of their heads.

As soon as they are out of the house, his mother pulls him into a run. They do not head into town, but away, into the dense forest that blocks their little town from the mountainous terrain that stretches the perimeter of the Terra.

They do not run for long, when the sound of a skimmer could be heard. It lands just ahead of them, a spot Ace knows to be a small meadow he and his mother frequented often. A tall figure in a cloak is what greets their sight when his mother leads him to the man and the skimmer. She embraces the figure as sobs rake her body and Ace has no idea what to do. Has never seen his mother cry before and he cannot stop it when tears begin to trace his cheeks and then his father’s face is directly in front of his, wiping at his cheeks stained with sweat and tears.

“Shh.” His father’s gentle voice whispers, “It’ll be alright, my little Ace.”

“Why is mama crying?” He asks as he buries his face in his father’s shoulder.

A large hand runs through his hands and a smaller one grips his shoulder, both with miniscule tremors running through their fingertips.

“You and your mother are going on a trip. A trip I won’t be able to join you on. You may not see me for a long while, but just know that I will always be thinking of you.”

Those large hands grip him harder before finally releasing him and he steps back. Nothing else is said before his mother is picking him up and placing him in her lap as she sits astride the side car on the skimmer. They ride for hours and at some point, Ace falls asleep. He wakes up blearily when his mother carries him out of the side car. They share one last hug with his father, Ace in between his parents, still in his mother’s arms. His father ruffles his hair and kisses him several times on the top of his head, whispering words to them both as he helps his mother settle onto a skimmer hidden in a little shed his father has parked next to.

“Be strong for me and protect your mother, my little Ace.” Is the last thing he hears before his father is walking back to his skimmer and his mother is starting up the one they are on.

The skimmer looks old and rusted but the engine sounds like it’s brand new. Through tired eyes, Ace stretches in his mother’s arms as he tries to keep his father in view, even as both skimmers ascend into the sky and go their separate ways.

Ace has never seen Terra Cyclonia from the outside before, but even then, he knows as the sky begins to light with the early morning sun, that that large, jagged Terra is indeed his former home. Far into the distance, he can see a large number of skimmers and several large Carriers leaving Cyclonian air space and it is a terrifying sight. And suddenly, all those quiet talks behind closed doors and frightened shop owners packing their belongings and leaving their little town on the edge of the Terra makes more sense.

At the age of six, Ace finally begins to understand the world and how cruel it really was. He understands the looks his father and mother shared as he came and went in the dark of night. He understands why his mother had such clothing on hand, dark and itchy and heavy but they blend into the night and look just like every other Cyclonian refugee that either escapes further into or out of Terra Cyclonia as war descends upon Atmos. 


End file.
